The Lonely Battle
by Nezuban
Summary: The story of Gohan from when Goku dies and as he fights the androids (History of Trunks timeline)


Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or any of its characters. Akira Toriyama does.  
  
A Lonely Battle  
  
By Nezuban  
  
***  
  
Gohan had been out playing with Hiya Dragon all day. The two of them had been inseparable for many years now, and spent many, many hours playing. The two of them were in the middle of a flying race when Gohan suddenly felt a wrenching pain in his chest. It felt like someone had driven a knife into his heart and twisted it. However, he knew, through an innate sense developed by his martial spirit, that the pain was not his own. An image flashed in his mind, one of sorrow and loss. It was Goku, his father.  
  
"Dad?" Gohan cried out. "NO!" He knew that something had happened to his father, though Gohan didn't know what. He tried flying, but the pain that continued to twist in his chest kept him from soaring like a bird, so he resorted to running.   
  
He ran for miles, all the while the image of his hurting father flashing in his mind. He hopped across a small stream like he did every day, hopped off a rock, and continued to run home. When he got there, he saw all of his friends standing outside his home. Bulma was there, with her newborn son, Trunks. Vegeta was there too, though he kept away from the others. Krillin was there, and Piccolo, Tien, Chao-Zu, and even Yamcha. All had a look of despair on their faces and in their eyes. Oolong and Pu'ar sat behind everyone, and it was Oolong that first noticed Gohan's arrival.  
  
"Hey, it's Gohan!" he cried happily. Gohan got the sense from everybody that something horrible had happened, and Gohan's heart wrenched. Gohan ran past everybody, and stormed into his house. He heard his mother weeping softly from his parents' bedroom, so he burst in there.  
  
"Father!" he cried. His mother was there, crying openly. His grandfather, Ox King, was there too, and looked like he had a tear or two in his eyes. And Master Roshi, Goku's old mentor, was there as well. His eyes were dry, but his soul wept.   
  
All three turned when Gohan burst in, and Chi Chi began to cry more.  
  
"Oh, Gohan," she sobbed. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Gohan felt a tear roll down his cheek as he crept close to the bed where his father lay. Goku's eyes were closed. His face was flat. Empty. But more than his face was empty. His whole soul was empty. There was no feeling coming from the kind-hearted warrior. None of his happiness, none of his pride. There was nothing. Goku was dead.  
  
"Father," Gohan sobbed. "No. NO!" He began to cry openly, and he felt his mother put her hand on his shoulder.   
  
"It's all right, Gohan. You can cry. It's okay." And Gohan did cry. He wept openly, tears streaming down his face and onto the floor.  
  
Outside, the others had heard Gohan's mournful wailing, and realized that their friend was gone.  
  
"He's gone," Krillin whispered. "Goku's gone!" He began to cry, along with Gohan. Everyone around him felt despair and sadness creep over them, shadowing in misery.  
  
"Kakarot?" Vegeta whispered. "No..." Vegeta's own heart ached, the first actual feeling other than anger to come over the Saiyan warrior for the first time in many long years.  
  
The Z-Fighters walked into Goku's house and found their way to the master bedroom. Master Roshi had put a white sheet over Goku's face, and everyone in the room began to mourn.  
  
Gohan still couldn't overcome the grief. He had known that his father had acquired a strange and vicious heart disease only weeks before. But Gohan--and everyone else, for that matter--had assumed that Goku would overcome it because of his immense will as a person and his power as a Super-Saiyan.  
  
Instead, he had succumbed to it.   
  
In a rage of anger and sadness, Gohan screamed and ran from his house, running as fast as his eight-year-old legs could carry him. He ran past Hiya Dragon who had been waiting for him where they had been playing only about and hour earlier. Hiya Dragon tried to keep up, but Gohan ran so much faster.  
  
He ran for hours, not caring where he went. He wanted this to be over. He wanted his father back and in good health. He ran until he could not run anymore, and he collapsed, both from sadness and tiredness, and fell asleep.  
  
He awoke some time later in his own bed, to his mother's humming. For a brief moment, Gohan thought that his father was still alive, and that the whole terrible ordeal had been just a bad dream. But then he saw his mother, her eyes puffy and red from crying. And then he knew that his father was gone forever.   
  
"Mom," Gohan said, trying to soothe her, though he felt like he needed to be soothed.   
  
"Gohan," she whispered. "It's okay. Your father may have been taken from us, but we still have each other. We have to keep on going--it's what Goku would want us to do."  
  
"You're right, Mom," Gohan acquiesced. He climbed out of bed and went straight to his desk, and began to study. Chi Chi had been going to tell Gohan to forget about studying for a while, and try to recover. But Gohan had already buried himself deeply into his books, and there would be no getting him out of it.  
  
***  
  
For three years, Gohan had gotten used to his father not being around. Chi Chi had become much more lax in her enforcement to keep him studying, so the two of them began to spend more time together. Life was returning to normal.  
  
That is, until May 3rd. On an island, nine miles southwest of South City, something terrible happened. Gohan had been watching TV that morning, and Chi Chi had been out getting groceries.   
  
At about ten that morning, a news flash interrupted the usual programming, announcing that the city near South City was under attack by two crazed maniacs. Gohan, sensing sudden danger, leapt from the chair where he was watching TV, and flew out the door.   
  
South City was quite a ways from where his home was, but he didn't care. Goku's spirit, still living inside Gohan, was telling him to keep going, and to protect the people who were being attacked.   
  
Along the way, Gohan caught up to Krillin, who had heard of the attack on his TV.   
  
"South City?" Krillin asked, without having to say anything more. Gohan nodded grimly in reply. "Come on! We have to hurry!" The two of them pumped up their power and flew towards the danger.  
  
Krillin and Gohan met up with the other Z-Fighters on a cliff that overlooked the besieged city. Nearly every building was collapsed or burning or both. And ki blasts still continued to fly.   
  
Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, and even Vegeta looked at each other, and flew down to where the attackers were attacking. When they got there, what they saw surprised them.  
  
There were only two of them. One was a boy with long dark hair, a red scarf around his neck and a pistol on his hip. The other was a beautiful young girl with blond hair and pretty features. Both had a symbol of a red ribbon with the letters "RR" on them. And they were ruthless in the attacking the already destroyed city. The boy seemed to enjoy blowing up buildings, while the girl was making shots and the fleeing citizens.  
  
"Stop this!" Piccolo bellowed, his ki level rising rapidly. The girl turned at him and smiled coldly. Gohan watched as Piccolo attacked the girl with a slice of his hand...and saw his hand strike only air. The girl reappeared a moment later and landed a killing blow to the Namek's chest area. Piccolo fell, dead.  
  
Gohan screamed in terror, his ki level rising to its fullest. An air of energy surrounded him, and washed over him. However, Gohan couldn't will himself to attack. He watched as Vegeta, in a Super-Saiyan rage, charged the boy, only to have a knee placed in his gut. Coughing blood, the Saiyan prince also fell dead.   
  
Gohan wailed again, seeing a fellow member of his own race fall to the ground, but he still couldn't will himself to attack. Yamcha and Tien both attacked the girl at the same time.  
  
"Kamehameha!" Yamcha yelled.  
  
"Tri-Beam!" Tien yelled.  
  
From both of them, energy waves of immense power flew towards the girl like blades of death. But the girl merely deflected them with a wave of her hand. She returned the attacks, and both warriors were incinerated.  
  
Krillin, who had been too terrified to move until now, charged the attackers. But he didn't manage two steps before both the girl and boy sent beams of destructive energies into his eyes. Krillin also fell.  
  
Gohan couldn't take it anymore. All of his friends, who had been there with him when his father died, were now also dead. A rage built up inside Gohan, a terrible and searing rage that took him over. These attackers...they were too cruel. And so unfair. Gohan couldn't hold back his energies any more. All of his restraints and concerns vanished.  
  
Gohan's eleven-year-old muscles began to pump with a new power such as he had never before experienced. They all flexed and grew, pulsing with the power of his Saiyan blood. Gohan's hair began to stand on end, and began to change from a pitch black to a shimmering gold. His eyes also changed. With a new fury, they changed to a bright green, reflecting this cold fury in his soul. Gohan had now become a Super-Saiyan.  
  
With all cares gone, Gohan charged the attackers with reckless abandon, attacking furiously and for the first time, forced the attackers to give ground. However, the girl and the boy, now recovered from the surprise that Gohan had given them, teamed up and sent the supercharged Super-Saiyan into the dirt.  
  
When Gohan landed, his newfound powers faded, and he was left gasping for air. The two attackers landed nearby, looking down at him.  
  
"Was that all the power he had?" the boy asked.   
  
"I guess so," the girl answered.   
  
"Who..." Gohan managed. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"  
  
The boy smiled coldly. It was so cold, and so empty. "Because we were created to. Doctor Gero remade us into androids so we could conquer the world. But we just want to have fun." He pointed his finger at Gohan's forehead. "Now, kid, I think I'm going to kill you."  
  
The girl put her hand on the boy's arm. "Stop, Seventeen. Just leave him alone. I think he's learned his lesson. Let's just go."  
  
The boy, Seventeen, she called him, lowered his arm. "You always were the soft one, Eighteen," he chuckled. With one last empty smile at Gohan, the two androids took off, leaving the destroyed city and Gohan.  
  
Gohan didn't remember getting home, but that is just where he found himself when he woke. He was in his own bed, and he was covered in bandages. Chi Chi entered after hearing Gohan stirring, and she immediately swept over to the bed and hugged him close.   
  
"Oh, Gohan!" She wept. "I'm so glad you're okay! You've been in a coma for nearly a week! But now you're here, and safe. Please stay here with me, Gohan! Please don't ever leave me again!" She began to sob as she hugged Gohan tighter. But Gohan forced her away.   
  
"I'm sorry, mom," he said, climbing out of bed. He reached for his clothes from the floor, and began to dress. "I can't stay. I have to help the people of the world. These androids are killing so many innocent people. I have to go help them."  
  
"NO!" Chi Chi wailed. "No! You can't go and leave me here alone! You're all I have left! Please! PLEASE!!"  
  
"I'm sorry, mom," Gohan whispered. With that, he opened the window of his room and flew away from his mother and his old life. He had a new war to wage. He powered up to Super-Saiyan status without thinking about it, and felt the energy pulse through his veins.  
  
He had a new war to wage, and the power to wage it.  
  
***  
  
-Four years later-  
  
Gohan felt the incoming attack long before it reached him, and he moved out of the way. The energy wave that had been emitted from a training robot bounced off another robot, and another, forcing Gohan to dodge the attacks at all times.   
  
He trained like this every day, for nearly fourteen hours every day. The only breaks he took were to eat and to fight the androids whenever they attacked another city. So far, in the four years since he had run away from his old life, he had fought the androids time and time again, losing each time, and each time the androids spared him. They found it fun that someone was opposing them, and they got every bit of amusement that he gave them every time they struck him down. If had hadn't been for Korrin's Senzu beans, Gohan would have died long ago.   
  
Of course, with every defeat, Gohan just got more powerful. It was a trait he had inherited from his father's race. They other trait that Gohan had inherited was his race's hidden secret: the power of a Super-Saiyan. And Gohan used both traits to his advantage every time.  
  
The energy wave came at him again, and Gohan powered up toe Super-Saiyan status. This set off an alarm inside each robot, and each robot then fired another energy wave, sending ten energy waves flying at Gohan at lightspeed from all directions at all times. It took all Gohan had not to get hit. He dodged one, then another, then dodged the first one again, then another three at the same instant, and felt one explode hotly on his back. Another landed on his chest, and one more on his left arm. Gohan sent a shockwave of energy in all directions, destroying the ten robots.  
  
Gohan fell to the ground hard, and heard the door to the training chamber open. Bulma walked in, followed by her nine-year-old son Trunks.   
  
"Good grief, Gohan," she said. "Every day you keep destroying my robots. Why can't you Saiyans take it easy?"  
  
Gohan panted, and rose to his feet. He strode past her.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said as he passed. He had grown cold and hard since the androids had first spared him, speaking very rarely and only one or two words at a time. His mother would probably smack him if she ever found out that he was being so rude. And Bulma would have told her, if Gohan hadn't made her promise not to tell his mother that he was staying with them.   
  
He strode to his room, and locked himself it. He went over to his bed, and closed his eyes. He began to meditate, and felt his hatred of the androids grow. Still in Super-Saiyan status, he felt his ki level rise.  
  
A sudden knock at his door brought him out of his meditation. When he opened it, Trunks stood there, looking up at him.  
  
"What?" Gohan asked coldly.   
  
Trunks answered him with a swift kick to the shin. Gohan grunted and stumbled back, only to be tackled by Trunks. Trunks stood on Gohan's chest and looked down at him.  
  
"Why do you have to be so rude to my mom!" he shouted. "She has feelings too, you know! She lost someone very special to her too! My dad! He died defending the earth! And you lived. She wants you to do what Vegeta couldn't! But she wants you to be like your dad!"  
  
"My dad?" Gohan said. "Bah! What does SHE know of my dad!" he said without thinking.  
  
"Excuse me?" came Bulma's harsh reply from the door. "What do I know of your dad?! A lot more than you think, young man! I've known Goku since he was nine! And I KNOW that Goku would be handling things much better than you!"  
  
Gohan looked away from her. Trunks was still standing on his chest, immobilizing him. "I-I know," he said. "But I'm NOT my dad!"  
  
Bulma looked sympathetic. "I know what you're going through, Gohan. Losing Vegeta was hard on me, too. Even though he never showed it, or ever said it, he loved me and Trunks. He had grown fond of us over the years, and losing him to the androids was the worst thing that ever happened to me. But I live on. I continue to live my life, just as Vegeta would have wanted me to. And just as Goku would want you to. Fighting the androids is your mission, Gohan, and Goku would always want you to be your best. But he would never want you to fight the androids with your heart full of hate. 'To overcome all obstacles in life, one must have a higher purpose than hate or revenge,' your father would say. Remember that, Gohan." With that, she turned and left to repair the training robots. Trunks jumped off his chest and left too.  
  
Gohan sat up and thought about what Bulma said. It was true, he realized. Goku would not have wanted his son to go on living in a world of anger, hatred, and vengeance. Gohan smiled for the first time in four years, and went to help Bulma.  
  
***  
  
-Five years later-  
  
Gohan felt the attack on Pepper City long before the newscasters announced it. And by the time they did, Gohan was already racing towards the city before it could be totally demolished.   
  
When he got there, it was too late. The city was gone, and the androids were too. But when he got there, he saw something that made him feel so much worse. Fourteen-year-old Trunks was there, holding a dead child's doll, and crying. Trunks turned when he saw Gohan approach, and the two of them silently flew to the Capsule Corporation building.  
  
"Is this what life is supposed to be like?" Trunks sobbed to himself. "So full of pain?" He looked at Gohan, who was looking out the window with his back turned to Trunks. "Well," Trunks went on angrily. "I'd rather fight and die than let this all happen!" He stood and faced Gohan. "Come on, Gohan! You're half-Saiyan like me, right? Then you must know this anger that I'm feeling! Train me! Let me channel some this anger!"  
  
Gohan chuckled softly. "You're pitiful, Trunks. An emotional wreck. Just like I was when my mother wouldn't let me train and fight with my father." He turned around and approached his young friend. "From now on, I am your master, and you are my pupil. How's that?"  
  
"Great," Trunks replied. Together, Gohan realized, together they could defeat the androids and bring peace back to the earth. Together.  



End file.
